Oakland Raiders vs. Kansas City Chiefs: Who Had The Better Moral Victory?

A lot of coaches, players, and fans will tell you that there is no such thing as a moral victory.

There are even giant billboards with San Francisco 49ers Head Coach Mike Singletary saying," I'm not a moral victory kind of guy."

But, after opening weekend, ask many Raider, Chiefs or Buffalo fans, and they will tell you otherwise.

All three teams were expected to loss and all three teams did...but that's not the point.

The Bills were set to beat the Patriots with an 11-point lead in the final five minutes until an untimely fourth-quarter fumble. The Raiders led the Chargers for most of the game, only to give up the lead in the final 18 seconds of the game. And the Chiefs...well, I guess they hung with the Baltimore Ravens for a while in there 24-38 loss.

I will give the best morale victory to the Buffalo Bills, but who had the second best?

First, the Chiefs. Many are hyping their loss as a respectable morale victory. But I would beg to differ. Despite the score being close for much of the game, the Ravens dominated in every aspect of the game.

Look at the Chiefs first six drives. One yard, three and out punt. Negative five yards, three and out punt. Nine yards, three and out punt. 41 yards, but no points due to the end of the half. Then, finally, a six-yard touchdown after a 70-yard interception return to set up first and goal.

The only reason the Chiefs were even in the game was due to a blocked punt touchdown and an interception that set up an easy touchdown.

Come on, the Chiefs defense made Joe Flacco look like Peyton Manning. The Ravens offense, which gained over 500 yards, dwarfed the Chiefs, who weren't even able to amass 200 total yards. Not only did Joe Flacco torch the Chiefs D, but so did the Ravens running backs, averaging 4.8 yards per carry to 198 yards.

Not only that, but the Chiefs lost hope towards the end of the game givig up 21 points in the fourth quarter alone.

Not very impressive.

Now, lets take a look at the Raiders.

The Raiders actually performed pretty well, and despite accuracy issues, JaMarcus Russell single-handedly outgained the Chief offense as a whole with 208 yards passing and six rushing yards.

The formerly soft D-line looked solid with newly acquired Richard Seymour. They limited LaDainian Tomlinson and Darren Sproles to less than 80 yards and 3.2 yards per carry. Also, the D-line had three sacks and harassed Rivers all night.

The O-line looked pretty good, also allowing only one sack and dominating the line of scrimmage in the first half. It also led the way for Oakland's running backs to double the Chargers' rushing total with 148 yards on the ground—a 4.6 average.

Not only that, but the Raiders finally brought back that long-forgotten Raider swagger and attitude. Not only did the Raiders control the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, but they showed the Chargers they meant business by outmatching the Chargers in numerous matchups and laying plenty of big hits, including ones by Tyvonn Branch, Thomas Howard, Michael Mitchell, Trevor Scott and a devastating crack-block by Darren McFadden.

At the end of the day, it was the Raiders' game to lose, which inevitably happened due to the Raiders switching to the prevent defense late in the fourth quarter.